BRING the
vinegar, 1 ½ cups water, salt, and mustard seed to a boil in a small pot.
Turn off heat. In 3 clean, pre-warmed Ball® quart jars, divide the okra,
chilies, garlic, and dill.

PACK tightly
leaving ¼ inch headspace. Pour the hot brine into the jars making sure to
leave ¼ inch headspace. Cap with a clean Ball® lid and tighten canning band
to fingertip tight. Place jar in boiling water canner. Repeat until all jars
are filled.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

For an online copy of this handout
and others, go to TheRedneckHippie.com and click on the “Tutorials” tab.

Freezing

Most foods can be frozen
easily preserving the texture more than canning.

Before freezing, most
vegetables must be blanched using either boiling water or steam.

Water Blanching: dunking
the vegetables in boiling water for a few seconds or a few minutes.

Steam Blanching:
steaming the vegetables in a single layer held over boiling water.

What vegetable you are
preserving will determine the best method and time - consult the table on the
“Freezing” page on NCHFP’s website (url below).

Once the time is up,
remove the vegetables from the boiling water and dunk them immediately in
either cold or ice water.

Pack into freezer bags,
label with contents and date, and freeze.

Drying

Whole: There are a lot of vegetables that are almost designed to be
stored by simply drying them once they are mature: winter squash, garlic,
onions, soup beans, soup peas, cowpeas, and hot peppers. Simply let them mature completely on the
vine/plant, then store indoors or out of the weather. Beans and peas will need winnowing to remove
the husks.

Sliced: Other vegetables take a bit more work to dry. Tomatoes, green beans, peaches, apples,
apricots, and many more can be washed, sliced, and dried on racks, then stored
in vacuum-sealed jars or frozen. In less
humid climates, people can simply put the food on covered racks and leave them outside
where there’s a good air flow. It’s
quite humid here, so using an electric dehydrator or your oven is wise.

Oven-Dried Tomatoes: Best done with small, cherry types. Slice them in half or thirds, lay in a single
layer in a baking pan or cookie sheet, and bake in the oven on it’s lowest
setting until dry and leathery (Some gas stoves have a pilot light that alone
will dry tomatoes overnight.). Store in
the refrigerator in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, or freeze.

Leather Britches: Green beans strung on a string, ends and "strings" removed, then hung to dry until leathery.

Canning

There are two canning
processes - which type of process to use and why:

Water-bath canning
= to preserve very acidic foods (at least 4.6pH) - heating sealed jars of
food in boiling water for a specified time. Kills all bacteria and toxins
except botulinum spores, so only food that is 4.6pH or more acidic should
be preserved this way (that level of acidity keeps those spores
dormant).

Both
processes are exactly the same in their methods until you do the actual
cooking/boiling.

Then the only
differences are the type of canning pot, the amount of water in those
canning pots (only 2 to 3 inches in pressure canning – completely covering
the jars in water-bath canning), the application of pressure, and possibly
the amount of time to process.

Basic equipment for
water bath canning

Ball Blue Book.

Large pot with lid and rack, large enough to hold jars along with enough water to cover them
well. A pasta pot with colander insert works well for small batches,
or soup pot with vegetable steamer in the bottom.

Canning jars - Only use jars made and sold for canning.

Rings and NEW lids - Rings can be re-used, but lids
cannot (unless they are Tattler re-usables).

Cooking pot - Anything big enough to prepare the food
you are going to put in the jars.

Tongs for removing jars, rings, and lids from hot water
- Special canning tongs are recommended for this, but you can use anything
that will allow you to safely and firmly grasp and lift hot jars and lids
from boiling water.

Stove or other heat source capable of boiling water.
Glass-top stoves are not recommended.

Bring lids, rings, and jars just to a simmer in your canning
pot, then turn off heat. To avoid lime deposits on jars, add a cup
vinegar per gallon of water.

While jars are heating, prepare food to be canned
according to your recipe or method:

·Use ONLY lab-tested
recipes to ensure acidity stays in the safe range, and follow them
exactly. Even something as simple as
substituting “whole” for “sliced” can adjust the pH to dangerous levels later.

·Be sure to use vinegar
of the exact percentage of acidity your recipe calls for.

·A note about tomatoes:
Some tomatoes aren’t really as acidic as commonly thought, so need acidity
added to make them safe to water-bath can. Refer to your recipe or the
Ball Blue Book for specifics.

Remove jars,
lids, and rings onto clean kitchen towel laid out on counter.
Immediately fill jars, being careful to keep rims clean, leaving at
least half an inch of headspace (empty space between top of food and rim
of jar).

“Bubble” them, ie insert a thin utensil to work out air
bubbles. Wipe rims with clean kitchen towel.

Working quickly, put lids and rings on jars, not
tightening, just applying ‘til snug. The lids and

rings are designed
to form a one-way valve, allowing pressure that builds up inside the jar
to exhaust during processing (also called venting). If you tighten
the rings too tight, the jars may break or explode. Venting is also
why you leave the half-inch of headspace - so your food doesn’t get pushed
out of the jars as they vent, dirtying the rim and possibly getting in the
way of a safe seal forming between the lid and the jar rim.

Place jars back in canning pot, making sure water is
covering top of jars by an inch. If you stack jars, don’t stack
directly on top of each other: instead, place one jar “staggered” over two
below so they can vent.

Cover pot, bring back to a boil and start timing.
Process (boil) for the time recommended by your recipe. If canning in altitudes higher than 1000
feet above sea level, consult the link below about adjustments.

When time is up, remove the jars from the canner to a
towel on the counter. Using towels as hot pads, tighten lids.

Let cool slowly, keeping them out of drafts (if they
cool too quickly, the jars make break).

Smile as you hear the pings of the jars sealing while
you’re drinking that well-earned beer to celebrate your first canning
success.

Next day, test every seal (see below, under “Problems you
may encounter”), then label and date all jars and store in a cool, dark
place.

Problems you may
encounter

Jars not “pinging” when sealing - Wait ‘til jars
are completely cool (next day is good) and feel the center of the lid.
If it’s convex (“caved in/down”), your jar is sealed. I
double-check by removing the ring and trying to pick up the jar by the
lid; if it holds, I’ve got a good seal. If the jar fails any of
these tests, I refrigerate and eat promptly.

Lime deposits on jars - Add one cup vinegar per gallon
of water to canner pot before boiling jars.

Jars breaking - This doesn’t happen often, but it’s
usually because the rings were tightened too much before processing or
they were exposed to drafts or cold while still hot from the canner.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

When Ben Franklin said,
“Nothing is certain except for death and taxes,” he revealed that he was not a
gardener. Gardeners know that weeds should be added to that list.

Sadly, there is no magic
bullet. There is not a product alive
that does what Roundup promises. Not
even Roundup does what Roundup promises.
So, unless you want to pave your entire yard, you will have to deal with
weeds.

First, Know Thy Enemy: what kind of
weed are you dealing with? This will
dictate how you will control them.

Types of weeds:

vAnnuals ~ Weeds that complete their entire life
cycle in one season. Easiest to get rid of physically, but quickest to reseed. Examples: Cleavers, Chickweed, Henbit, Hedge Parsley
(Torilis), Annual bluegrass,

vBiennials ~ Plants that complete their life cycle in
two years. Easier than perennials to get rid of, but harder than annuals. Examples: Wild
carrot and it's incredibly toxic lookalike Poison Hemlock. (Note: LEARN about poison hemlock, then always use gloves when eradicating it. It really IS as toxic as they say.)

vPerennials ~ Weeds that live for years, going dormant
in winter (usually) and sprouting again to grow in spring/summer/fall. This includes many types including creeping,
rhizomatous, and bulbous. Examples: Bermuda grass, Nut grass (Nutsedge), Sheep Sorrel,
Johnson grass, Dallisgrass, and Crabgrass.

Basic ways to control weeds:

vAnnuals ~ Cut them off at ground level or just below the soil
surface. Don’t let them go to seed.

vBiennials ~ Same as annual control when they’re
young, more like perennial control when they’re older.

vDamp soil is easier to pull weeds from.
Not wet – you never want to work wet soil as it can cause clods that
take forever to “melt”. And not dry –
dry soil can be rock hard, and harder to pull weed roots from.

Ways to control weeds:

About
weed barrier fabric –
I’m not a big fan. It stops natural
cycles (leaves falling on soil and breaking down, and soil moisture level
fluctuations) and many times don’t work anyway, leaving a mess of plastic
threads you have to pull up (which isn’t always easy if Bermuda has clambered
across it and pinned it to the ground). If
you do use it, try to use a thick paper one so it will eventually break down
and not leave you with that mess to clean up.
In extreme circumstances, when sheet mulching hasn’t worked, use heavy
black contractor’s plastic covered with mulch, then pull up in a year or
two.

In the lawn:

vKeep the grass as healthy as you can so it can choke out most weeds (Refer to
our Organic Lawn Care Guide). Also,
increasing soil fertility and organic matter content discourages many weeds while
encouraging turf grass.

vCorn gluten – A pre-emergent weed killer used at
least twice a year just before the two main weed-sprouting times: at the change
of cool weather to warm weather and warm back to cool. (Refer to our Corn
Gluten handout)

vHand digging/hand removal – There are a number of hand tools that
will help you with this. Check into
Cobra tool, hori hori knife, Cape Cod weeder, rockery trowel, radius weeder,
ball weeder, cork screw weeding tool, daisy grubber, Ho-Mi (Korean EZ-Digger).
You can also use a knife or screwdriver for some things, and a regular dinner
fork and/or longer-handled barbecue fork.

vWeed popper for clumping weeds and those with large taproot
systems.

vIn
extreme cases, use a spading fork to
loosen the area in and around the weeds, pull them up roots and all, then
carefully replace the grass. Care will
need to be taken for the grass after this as you’ve effectively just
transplanted it. Seaweed and extra
watering will be needed.

In planted beds:

vMulching – A good, thick layer of mulch will shade
out most weed seeds and make any others easier to pull since they won’t be as
well-rooted.

vHoes – stirrup hoe (aka oscillating hoe) is my favorite.

v20% Vinegar – This extra-strong vinegar can be
sprayed as is, or mixed with orange oil and soap (See the Poison Ivy Killer
recipe on NaturalGardenerAustin.com).

vIn
extreme cases, use a spading fork to
loosen the area in and around the weeds, pull them up roots and all, then
carefully replace the grass. Care will
need to be taken to avoid roots of established plants if possible. If not, seaweed will help them get over it.

In veggie beds:

vIntensive planting – Planting crops so close together that
they act as a living mulch.

vNo-Till, or minimizing soil disturbance – Some
weed seeds can lay dormant for decades and only need the briefest light
exposure to germinate, so tilling actually increases weed seed
germination. It’s best to avoid if you
can.

vIn
extreme cases, use a spading fork to
loosen the area in and around the weeds, pull them up roots and all, then
carefully replace the grass. Care will
need to be taken to avoid roots of established plants if possible. If not, seaweed will help them get over it.

In new areas that will be planted beds or veggie beds or
lawn:

vSheet mulching – Multiple layers of
compost-newspaper-cardboard to shade out and rot weeds below. It must be left in place for at least two
seasons before planting through it, longer for certain hard-to-kill weeds.

vPre-Sprouting – Watering the area to encourage weed
seeds to sprout, then tilling again or using a hoe to kill them while they’re
still small. You can do this for a
month, hoeing once or more a week, and you will presprout and kill 90% of the
weed seeds.

Monday, February 20, 2017

At the double digging class last Saturday, Tom gave a link to the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California Santa Cruz. I tried it, but it didn't come up for me. I did a search for the center under it's full name and got this link:

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Got a year or two of veggie growing experience under your belt and now looking for a bit more of a challenge? Come to one of my Vegetable Gardening 201 classes at The Natural Gardener. These are the class notes, so if you need a hard copy to bring to class with you, copy the individual url to this blog post and go to PrintFriendly.com.

Veggie Gardening 201

Timing: You already know planting times in Texas are different than the rest of the country. But did you know you can tweak them even more? Gambling a bit by planting things even earlier than the calendar says can really pay off. We do it here at The Natural Gardener occasionally, I do it at home, and many market growers do it regularly. But remember that sometimes, when there's a HARD frost later in the season or a week of 100+ temps later than you think, it's a complete bust.

Season Extenders: Things to
either warm up or cool down vegetable plants.

Frost Cloth – The one you may have already been
using.

Shade Cloth – You may have already been using
this as well.

Candle Warmers – Prayer candles in glass, buried
partway and lit with a pot over it.

Lettuce and kale will wane and the tomatoes
will mature and take their place.

Interplanting: Planting two or more crops in
the same area, close to and among each other. Sometimes they can grow in the same season compatibly, other times one crop will wane as the other matures. Some examples…

Sweet potatoes under peppers

Cole crops under tomatoes

Creeping herbs under other things

Strawberries under asparagus

Okra with artichokes

Crop Rotation: Rotating planting spots around
the garden each season so no type of vegetable is planted in the same spot two
years in a row.

To avoid disease buildup and mineral deficiencies
over time

Vegetable Families

Cover Cropping: Growing plants for the express
purpose of improving the soil. They can
be tilled into the soil when they are a few weeks or months old, or allowed to
die and decompose in place naturally. If
tilled in, allow at least two weeks for decomposition before replanting the
bed.

Warm season:

Cowpeas – This one’s a legume, so fixes
nitrogen.

Buckwheat

Cool season:

Annual Rye

Perennial Rye

Crimson Clover – Another legume.

Australian Winter Pea – Another legume.

Hairy Vetch – Still another legume.

Record Keeping is an important way of not losing what you've learned. There are numerous ways to do it. Pick one that works for you. Some I've used are:

Photos saved on your phone or computer in dated folders.

Good old fashioned paper and penBlog - combines photos and text, and it's fun!

Using "cues" in photos: I planted THESE ..... THIS WAY ........................................... in THIS BED.

Fertilizing and Soil Life

How pH affects nutrient availability.

Desertification - how the summer heat and dryness affects our garden and what to do about it.

Alkalinity and how it affects soil chemistry, making some nutrients unavailable. The average soil pH in our area that I see on customer's soil tests over and over again is 7.8.

Nutrient/Mineral Deficiencies: The most
common we encounter are:

Nitrogen - Pale, stunted, yellow plant. Fertilize with a food with a high first
number.

NOTE: If you attempt to correct the deficiency
(for instance add Epsom salt for magnesium deficiency) and there is no change
after two weeks, you can suspect a different deficiency or other cause as many things look alike. For instance, these photos all depict iron deficiency:

And this is magnesium deficiency:

And these deficiencies are, from left, potassium, boron, and nitrogen.

Planting by
the Phases of the Moon

Waxing (growing) moon: Time to sow and transplant
things that grow above ground.

Waning (declining) moon: Time to sow and
transplant things that grow below ground.

Garden Experiments: You can learn a lot by experimenting with different products, methods, or varieties. Be sure to do them side-by-side in the same year to evaluate them fairly. If you simply try something one year and something else the next, there may be variables you don't notice that unfairly affect one or the other. For instance, if you use one fertilizer in a year that is mild, then another in a year that got extra hot extra early, any negative effects are likely because of the differences in weather and not the fertilizer's fault.

Variety trials - Spend one year using all the extra space in your garden to try growing multiple varieties of the same vegetable. I've found many of my favorite varieties during "The Year of the Bean" or "The Year of the Squash."

Different fertilizersDifferent watering regimensDifferent soil additives such as sulphur or seaweed - use these on one bed, but not anotherMulch or no mulch